Purpose

To consolidate, disseminate, and gather information concerning the 710 expansion into our San Rafael neighborhood and into our surrounding neighborhoods. If you have an item that you would like posted on this blog, please e-mail the item to Peggy Drouet at pdrouet@earthlink.net

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Party like it’s 1994! America’s CO2 emissions hit 18-year low

The last time America’s carbon dioxide
emissions were this low, Nelson Mandela was being inaugurated as South
Africa’s president, O.J. Simpson was being chased by police in a white
Bronco, and Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin were agreeing to ease up on
the whole let’s-point-countless-nukes-at-each-other thing.

U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions steadily rose from the mid-90s
until they hit a peak in 2007. Since then, emissions have fallen in five
out of seven years. In 2012, emissions were 12 percent below the 2007
level, dipping back to 1994 levels. That’s according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration:

EIAClick to embiggen.
Let’s celebrate with a trip down memory lane. Here are the reasons
the EIA gives for America’s falling emissions, set to a soundtrack of
some of the biggest hits of 1994.

Whoomp!

First, let’s note two things that are not contributing to
falling emissions. CO2 output is not falling because the economy is
shrinking nor because the population is shrinking. The population grew
0.7 percent between 2011 and 2012 and GDP grew by 2.8 percent — yet
energy consumption fell by 2.4 percent.

Here Comes the Hotstepper

Americans are turning to their air-conditioners more frequently to
help them beat the heat, but they’re not needing their heaters so much.
And that’s notable because it takes more energy to heat a home than to
cool it. Last year’s winter and early spring were so warm that, by
the end of March, there had been 19 percent fewer days that required
heating than the 10-year average.

Hero

Americans and their utilities are making strides in energy
efficiency. Electricity generation, transmission, and distribution
became 1 percent more efficient between 2011 and 2012.

Americans drove 3.3 percent fewer miles last year than in 2007, and their cars and trucks are becoming more efficient.

Loser

America has lost a lot of factories and factory jobs. That’s pushing
industrial carbon emissions to other countries. Industrial output fell
2.7 percent from 2007 to 2012, and manufacturing output was down 5
percent during the same period.

Stroke You Up

Power plants have been abandoning coal, driving the largest drop in
the economy’s overall carbon intensity since record-keeping began in
1949.